Icons & Cultural Text Studies

Bent Sørensen

Aalborg University

Iconic Representation

All iconic representations of actual persons (living or dead) are caught in a dichotomy between elements of normality/familiarity and elements of transgression.

Manipulation of representations of celebrities or famous persons into hero- or other-images can either constitute adversarial or collaborative icon work.

Icons - thesis 1

The commercial icon or pictogram works through simplified representation: It is stylised

The religious icon works through embellished representation and through symbolic detail: It is sacralised

Iconic representation of persons combines these two modes of representation: It presents a stylised and sacralised image of the person.

Icons – thesis 2

A person who achieves icon status has to be recognisable to the majority of a specific group, whether that is a subculture (defined through age, race etc.), a nation, or the global community: Iconicity presupposes familiarity.

A person who achieves icon status has to be extraordinary, whether through his/her achievements, or through image. Iconicity presupposes transgression of normality.

Iconicity is only achieved when the person imaged represents a combination of familiarity (fame) and transgression (cool).

Icons – thesis 3

Iconicity is a form of immortality Iconicity has a history, i.e. not all icons

are permanent. Icons can become dated, and

consequently slip out of their apparent immortal status.

Icons – thesis 4

Icons place us, as viewers and readers, in communi(cati)on with the icon

We are not ourselves icons. Icons thus enforce a passive role on us as

viewers or voyeurs, a role which we may resist but are doomed to re-enact whenever we communicate with an icon. The relation between icon and viewer is thus basically unequal.

Icons – thesis 5

From the religious connotations of iconicity we inherit the position of worshipper.

From the industrial, service and information oriented connotations of iconicity we inherit the position of consumer.

Both these positions are well served by dead icons, and by marketable icons, which offer no resistance to commodification.

Icons – thesis 6

Icons can become overexposed. As a result, people may attempt to actively

resist icons, e.g. by defacing them or tampering with them (slander, rumour-mongering, gossip, satire, co-optation etc. are all possible strategies): The formerly passive worshippers become iconoclasts

All of these activities ultimately serve chiefly to perpetuate the iconic person’s status and longevity.

Icons – thesis 7

Iconicity means a reduction of the person behind the icon (the iconic subject) to image, to object.

Iconicity is a form of martyrdom. Iconicity is a reduction or translation

from individuality to symbol

Icons – thesis 8

The need for icons is an expression of our longing for something beyond our own subject-hood, a desire to idolise

The need for icons is no longer fulfilled in traditional religious ways, but has become transferred onto other manifestations of the extraordinary.

The need for icons has not diminished over the last 50 years, on the contrary there are more icons now than ever, despite the acceleration in cultural change.

Icons – thesis 9

Iconography reveals by concealing and conceals by revealing.

The Cadillac - as Icon & Cultural Text

Bent Sørensen

Aalborg University

Cadillac Ads 1952-59

Well I’m the king of the road Ain’t got no place to go, no place I call home Seen the world from behind this old wheel Driving away from those feelings I feel

- Cadillac Man

Dreamgirls still

On the Road Cadillacs 1

He was a little taut Negro with a great big Cadillac. He hunched over the wheel and blew the car clear across Frisco without stopping once, seventy miles an hour right through traffic and nobody even noticed him, he was so good

On the Road Cadillacs 2

It was the last of the old-style limousines, black, with a big elongated body and whitewall tires and probably bulletproof windows

“Sal, I’ve never been to Chicago all my life, never stopped. We’ll come in there like gangsters in this Cadillac!”

On the Road Cadillacs 3

At intermissions we rushed out in the Cadillac and tried to pick up girls all up and down Chicago. They were frightened of our big, scarred, prophetic car. In his mad frenzy Dean backed up smack on hydrants and tittered maniacally. By nine o’clock the car was an utter wreck. It had paid the price of the night. It was a muddy boot and no longer a shiny limousine.

1950 Coupe De Ville

1956 Coupe De Ville

1958 Coupe De Ville

1960 Coupe De Ville

Fin light - detail

Rocket Bumper

tailfins and frontal bumpers

Cadillac Walk

Lonely tonight honey hear my call She said boy I won't make you crawl Rita pound by pound Knows how to work it down Weep and cry to and fro Leave your heart she'll steal your gold No matter what the cost Ooh...them dual exhaust Make my motor sigh

My baby's got the Cadillac walk

The Cadillac Ranch (1974) Amarillio, Texas

1949 through 1963 "Art is a legalized form of insanity, and I do it

very well." (Stanley Marsh)

Cadillac Ranch

Cadillac, CadillacLong and dark, shiny and blackOpen up your engines let 'em roarTearing up the highway like a big old dinosaur

Hey, little girlie in the blue jeans so tightDrivin' alone through the Wisconsin nightYou're my last love baby you're my last chanceDon't let 'em take me to the Cadillac Ranch

Howlin’ Wolf

Cadillac Daddy

I love the Cadillac, long wreckin' machineI love a Cadillac, it's a long wreckin' machineMe and my baby can ride it, ev'rything is nice 'til

then(Yeah!)I'll make a cool hundred, I ain't got time to stop

for gasI'll make a cool hundred, I ain't got time to stop

for gasI'm gonna drive this automobile, just as long as

the gas lasts

Chuck Berry

Maybellene

As I was motorvatin’ over the hillI saw Maybellene in a Coupe de VilleA Cadillac arollin' on the open roadNothin' will outrun my V8 FordThe Cadillac doin' about ninety-fiveShe's bumper to bumper, rollin' side to side

No Money Down

Trade in your FordAnd I'll put you in a carThat'll eat up the roadJust tell me what you wantAnd then sign on that line

No Money Down 2

Well Mister I want a yellow convertibleFour - door de VilleWith a Continental spareAnd a wide chrome wheel

And I want a full Murphy bedIn my back seatI want short - wave radioI want TV and a phone

You Can’t Catch Me

I bought a brand new airmobileIt was custom madeIt was a Flight DeVilleWith an powerful motorAnd some hideaway wingsPush in on the button and you can hear her singNow you can't catch meNo, baby, you can't catch me'Cause if you get too closeYou know I'm gone like a cool breeze

Cadillac Escalade

Tiger Woods’ black Escalade